Philippines reports more than 140,000 dengue cases in 1st ten months

After a relatively mild (for the Philippines) first half of the year in 2015 concerning dengue fever, the mosquito borne viral disease has exploded as the cumulative case tally from January through October has reached 142,227.

Aedes aegypti/CDC

To show how active dengue has been in the past several months, the total cases through the first six months of 2015 was 32,440, including 105 deaths.

The total cases in 2015 to date is a nearly 50 percent increase from the same period in 2014 when 95,000 cases were reported.

Central Luzon, CALABARZON and the National Capital Region (NCR) are the regions of the country with the most cases with 25,049, 24,661 and 17,925 cases, respectively.

Department of Health (DOH) spokesman Lyndon Lee Suy has called the public to join officials in the battle against dengue–“We cannot control dengue alone… We need everyone’s cooperation..If we would not take responsibility, no matter how many interventions we do, fumigation for instance, we will continue to have a problem if you did not help us,” Dr. Lee-Suy said.

According to the World Health Organization, Dengue is transmitted by the bite of a mosquito infected with one of the four dengue virus serotypes. It is a febrile illness that affects infants, young children and adults with symptomsappearing 3-14 days after the infective bite.

Dengue is not transmitted directly from person-to-person and symptoms range from mild fever, to incapacitating high fever, with severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pain, and rash. There is no vaccine or any specificmedicine to treat dengue. People who have dengue fever should rest, drink plenty of fluids and reduce the fever using paracetamol or see a doctor.